Kiss Me Katie! & Hug Me Holly! Read Free Page B

him until she was in front of him, smiling with all the innocence of a shark. “Or because you like the way all us silly females melt over you when you do?”
    â€œOh, definitely, it’s because I like to sweat.”
    She laughed softly. “So big and tough.”
    â€œYou should see me after I wash the plane.”
    His light sarcasm was a wasted effort. She merely smiled. “You’re so exciting, Bryan. How did you manage to keep all those tipsy women off you last night? It wouldn’t have anything to do with the…Santa costume?”
    â€œI thought my being Santa was a secret.”
    Holly arched a brow and let out a mysterious smile. “Whoever told you that?”
    â€œYou know who. You. I got your note that Matt would be late and couldn’t do it, so you needed me to do it, and to keep it quiet about it.”
    â€œOh, that note.” She purred and lowered her lashes. “I suppose I owe you now.”
    Oh, boy. “No. Consider that a freebie.” Besides, he’d gotten his reward.
    â€œA freebie?” Holly pursed her lips. “You wouldn’t, by any chance, have gotten… lucky with that costume last night, would you? Maybe lucky with a certain accountant who thought you were…oh, I don’t know, a certain vice president?”
    Ah, now it made sense. He’d been set up. “You were responsible for that?”
    â€œYou’re giving me far too much credit,” she said serenely, studying her manicure. “And besides, everyone knows, Matt was supposed to be Santa.”
    â€œYes,” he said patiently. “But Matt wasn’t Santa. I was.”
    â€œRight. So if a mistake was made—” she lifted her shoulders and sent him a guileless smile “—then…oops.”
    â€œYou told her Matt was in the costume, didn’t you?”
    â€œNot exactly.”
    â€œThen what, exactly?”
    â€œAre you telling me you didn’t enjoy that kiss?”
    â€œOkay, let’s do this another way. Does she or does she not now know the truth?”
    â€œNot.” Holly grinned. “Are you kidding? Prim-and-proper accounting Katie kissing the wild, reckless, rowdy, untamable Bryan Morgan? She’d havea coronary. She definitely doesn’t like guys like you.”
    â€œShe’s not all that prim and proper.”
    Holly bent at the waist and burst out laughing. “Do tell.”
    Bryan gave up and started walking toward the first of three hangars that made up Wells, knowing he had exactly one hour to take care of his paperwork before chartering a flight that would keep him out of the airport for the rest of the day.
    Without a doubt, he was going to have to put that kiss right out of his head. Yes, the little accountant kissed nice, so what? She didn’t like guys like him, so what? He didn’t care, not when there were plenty of other women in the sea.
    That he hadn’t been looking was another matter entirely, he told himself. Between work and his loving but demanding family, he’d been busy, and hadn’t needed the additional complication. And he knew all too well, women were definitely a complication, no matter how sweet yet sexy their light, expressive whiskey eyes were.
    With that in mind, he made it to the hallway outside the postage-stamp-size office he rented from Wells, when he heard a very familiar voice.
    â€œMatt? Matt, I know you’re in there.”
    Katie.
    Katie back in her dull business suit with the too long skirt and the too full blazer so he couldn’t so much as catch a glimpse of that lush body he now knew she had, knocking on the closed door of Matt Osborne’s office.
    She should look unappealing, but she didn’t, not at all. Instead, she looked…huggable.
    Damn, what was that about?
    He attributed it to knowing that she kissed like heaven, and smelled like it, too.
    Then Matt opened his office door and smiled absently at her.